THE GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED by Moses Maimonides, translated
by Shlomo Pines. University of Chicago, 1963.

[CIRP Note: Moses Maimonides (1135-1204),
also known as the "Rambam", was a medieval Jewish rabbi,
physician and philosopher. CIRP presents Maimonides'
teachings on non-therapeutic ritual circumcision.]

Moses Maimonides

Part III, Chapter 33

To the totality of purposes of the perfect Law there
belong the abandonment, depreciation, and restraint of
desires in so far as possible. You know already that most of
the lusts and licentiousness of the multitude consist in an
appetite for eating, drinking and sexual intercourse.

To the totality of intentions of the Law there belong
gentleness and docility; man should not be hard and rough,
but responsive, obedient, acquiescent, and docile. You know
already His commandment... "Circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. Be silent, and
hearken, O Israel. If ye be willing and obedient."

Part III, Chapter 49

Page 609:

Similarly with regard to circumcision, one of the
reasons for it is, in my opinion, the wish to bring about a
decrease in sexual intercourse and a weakening of the organ
in question, so that this activity be diminished and the
organ be in as quiet a state as possible. It has been thought
that circumcision perfects what is defective congenitally.
This gave the possibility to everyone to raise an objection
and to say: How can natural things be defective so that they
need to be perfected from outside, all the more because we
know how useful the foreskin is for that member? In fact this
commandment has not been prescribed with a view to
perfecting what is defective congenitally, but to perfecting
what is defective morally. The bodily pain caused to that
member is the real purpose of circumcision. None of the
activities necessary for the preservation of the individual
is harmed thereby, nor is procreation rendered impossible,
but violent concupiscence and lust that goes beyond what is
needed are diminished. The fact that circumcision weakens the
faculty of sexual excitement and sometimes perhaps diminishes
the pleasure is indubitable. For if at birth this member has
been made to bleed and has had its covering taken away from
it, it must indubitably be weakened. The Sages, may their
memory be blessed, have explicitly stated: It is hard for a woman with
whom an uncircumcised man has had sexual intercourse to
separate from him. In my opinion this is the
strongest of the reasons for circumcision.

Pages 609-610:

According to me circumcision has another very important
meaning, namely, that all people professing this opinion-that
is, those who believe in the unity of God-should have
a bodily sign uniting them so that one who does not belong to
them should not be able to claim that he was one of them,
while being a stranger. For he would do this in order to
profit by them or to deceive the people who profess this
religion. Now a man does not perform this act upon himself or
upon a son of his unless it be in consequence of a genuine
belief. For it is not like an incision in the leg or a burn
in the arm, but is a very, very hard thing.

It is also well known what degree of mutual love and
mutual help exists between people who all bear the same sign,
which forms for them a sort of covenant and alliance.
Circumcision is a covenant made by Abraham our
Father with a view to the belief in the unity of
God. Thus everyone who is circumcised joins Abraham's
covenant. This covenant imposes the obligation to believe
in the unity of God: To be a God unto thee and to thy seed
after thee. This also is a strong reason, as strong as
the first, which may be adduced to account for
circumcision; perhaps it is even stronger than the
first.

The perfection and perpetuation of this Law can only be
achieved if circumcision is performed in childhood. For this
there are three wise reasons. The first is that if the child
were let alone until he grew up, he would sometimes not
perform it. The second is that a child does not suffer as
much pain as a grown-up man because his membrane is still
soft and his imagination weak; for a grown-up man would
regard the thing, which he would imagine before it occurred,
as terrible and hard. The third is that the parents of a
child that is just born take lightly matters concerning it,
for up to that time the imaginative form that compels the
parents to love it is not yet consolidated. For this
imaginative form increases through habitual contact and grows
with the growth of the child. Then it begins to decrease and
to disappear, I refer to this imaginative form. For the love
of the father and of the mother for the child when it has
just been born is not like their love for it when it is one
year old, and their love for it when it is one year old is
not like their love when it is six years old. Consequently if
it were left uncircumcised for two or three years, this would
necessitate the abandonment of circumcision because of the
father's love and affection for it. At the time of its birth,
on the other hand, this imaginative form is very weak,
especially as far as concerns the father upon whom this
commandment is imposed.

Page 611:

The fact that circumcision is performed on the
eighth day is due to the circumstance that all living beings
are very weak and exceedingly tender when they are born, as
if they were still in the womb. This is so until seven days
are past. It is only then that they are counted among those
who have contact with the air. Do you not see that this point
is also taken into account with regard to beasts
?—Seven days shall it be with its dam, and so
on. It is as if before that period it were an abortion.
Similarly with regard to man; he is circumcised after seven
days have passed. In this way the matter is fixed: You do
not make out of it something that varies.

This class of commandments also includes the prohibition
against mutilating the sexual organs of all the males of
animals, which is based on the principle of righteous
statutes and judgments, I mean the principle of keeping
the mean in all matters; sexual intercourse should neither be
excessively indulged, as we have mentioned, nor wholly
abolished. Did He not command and say: Be fruitful and
multiply? Accordingly this organ is weakened by means of
circumcision, but not extirpated through excision. What is
natural is left according to nature, but measures are taken
against excess. He that is wounded in the stones or hath
his privy member cut off is forbidden to marry a woman of
Israel, for such cohabitation would be perverted and aimless.
Such a marriage would likewise be a stumbling block for the
woman and for him who seeks her out. This is very clear.

Citation:

Maimonides, Moses. The Guide of the Perplexed.
Translated by Shlomo Pines. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1963.